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Sunday, July 29, 2018

Local police should not collaborate with ICE

In the early hours of a winter day
in 2017, “Laura” — a Montclair, New Jersey resident and single mother of four —
received a visit from the local police, responding to a household dispute that
had taken place hours beforehand.

The police took Laura to Montclair
jail, where they inquired into her immigration status. Laura refused to reply
to a question about her “papers.” That evening, she was transferred to Essex
County Jail, which has a contract to house Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) detainees.

Three days later, she was taken into
ICE custody and detained at Elizabeth Detention Center in Union County, where
she would remain imprisoned for three and a half months.

I first heard Laura’s story through
my work addressing conditions in detention centers and advocating for policies
to stop detentions and deportations. I’ve met hundreds of families whose lives
are thrown into chaos, who spend months or years in detention, and who get
deported to countries they haven’t seen in decades.

Often it’s a chance encounter with
law enforcement that sets these events in motion. Because of this, I spend a
lot of time trying to keep ICE out of our communities.

As the abuses perpetrated by ICE
gain widespread attention, so too do the calls to abolish
the agency. But while we’re working to end ICE
long-term, we also have proven, effective methods to reduce the harm they’re
causing now. These include robust sanctuary policies that end the collusion
with local law enforcement that ICE relies so heavily on.

In 2017, immigration enforcement
activities went up 30
percent nationally, and 42 percent in my state of New Jersey. This means more New Jersey immigrant communities are being
torn apart. It means that New Jersey is losing important labor force and tax
contributions. It means taxpayers are footing the bill for costly and immoral
immigrant detention. And it means more children will grow up without their
parents.

Hundreds of localities are
considering, or have passed, sanctuary policies to preserve privacy, protect
data, ensure access to services, and cut ties with the federal government’s
increasingly aggressive immigration raids, detentions, and deportations.

For Laura and her family, policies
like these could have helped prevent the devastating consequences of her
incarceration. While detained she lost her job, and her children were forced to
stay with her abusive partner. Though Laura is out on immigration bond, she
still hasn’t reunited with her children and is living in poverty.

And she’s now facing deportation.

The good news is that sanctuary
policies work. According to a study
by the Migration Policy Institute,
the majority of ICE arrests rely on some form of collaboration with local law
enforcement, and jurisdictions that limit their cooperation with the agency see
arrest and detention numbers go down.

Here in New Jersey, I’ve seen the
destruction caused when ICE is allowed to operate unchecked, and I’m proud of
the work we’ve done — in coalitions across the state — to protect the rights
and lives of all New Jersey residents. Thousands of others are campaigning hard
in other states, too.

Until the federal government stops
its relentless persecution of immigrants, it’s up to us to provide refuge in
whatever ways we can.

Chia-Chia
Wangis the organizing and
advocacy director in the American Friends Service Committee’s Newark, New
Jersey office. Distributed by OtherWords.org.

Thought for the day

You’d be forgiven if you hadn’t noticed. His verbal bombshells are louder than ever, but Donald J Trump is no longer president of the United States. By having no constructive response to any of the monumental crises now convulsing America, Trump has abdicated his office. He is not governing. He’s golfing, watching cable TV and tweeting…

In reality, Donald Trump doesn’t run the government of the United States. He doesn’t manage anything. He doesn’t organize anyone. He doesn’t administer or oversee or supervise. He doesn’t read memos. He hates meetings. He has no patience for briefings. His White House is in perpetual chaos.

Robert Reich

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